Pima County Continues Road Repair Efforts With Plans To Invest $29 Million In FY 2021

The Pima County Department of Transportation last week released the criteria it developed with the Pima County Transportation Advisory Committee for prioritizing which roads will be repaired in fiscal year 2021 as part of the County’s new Pay-As-You-Go, or PAYGO, infrastructure funding plan.

The County will spend $29 million repairing unincorporated County roads in fiscal year 2021, which starts July 1, 2020 and ends June 30, 2021. This funding follows the $36 million the County is spending this fiscal year on road repair.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors in November approved the PAYGO policy that funds infrastructure projects, including transportation projects, using existing revenue. The plan relies on funding already available while continuing to pay down debt and reducing the overall property tax rate.

County DOT is in the process of evaluating the pavement condition of every unincorporated County road. When the analysis is completed in January, DOT will use the pavement condition rating to apply the selection criteria. The list of roads to be repaired is expected to be released in May.

The proposed action plan for Fiscal Year 2021 would allocate 66 percent of the funding to local roads and 34 percent to arterial and collector roads.

“Under PAYGO, we will be able to address the condition of our roadway infrastructure system in a comprehensive manner,” said Ana Olivares, Pima County Department of Transportation Director.

The proposed 2021 plan greatly adds to the road repair efforts the County has undertaken over the past two years.

In Fiscal Year 2018, utilizing a one-year dedicated property tax for road repairs, the County invested $17.1 million to repair 223 miles of roadway across the County, including in the cities and towns ($7 million was spent on 88 miles in the unincorporated County), plus $6 million of DOT funding for an additional 59 miles of arterial and collector pavement preservation In Fiscal Year 2019, $10 million were dedicated to unincorporated County road repairs, with 40 miles of roadway repaired. And in Fiscal Year 2020, $36 million have been allocated to repair approximately 160 miles of roads.

In total, the County has invested $59 million on unincorporated County road repair and fixed, or is in the process of fixing, more than 340 miles of roadway over three years.

“The PAYGO funding plan will allow us to maintain the momentum we started in 2018 as we work to repair every road in the County in the next ten years,” Olivares said.

As approved by the Board of Supervisors, the PAYGO plan combined with existing Department of Transportation funding will provide over ten years $526 million for road repair and preservation. When completed, the pavement condition of County roads are expected to improve dramatically. Using the 100-point pavement condition index (PCI) rating scale, the County roadway network averages at 42 currently. That will increase to more than 80 after the ten-year PAYGO plan is completed.